Auld Yin

I thought Toronto now ships its rubbish to St.Thomas area, about halfway to Michigan.

MikeUK

I'd re-phrase that,

and a scarily large part of the population doesn't have enough education in science to understand half of the eco-topics of today and as a result choses to ignore them..

nerdherd

Isn't Vancouver supposed to be one of the greenest cities in North America?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle2157796/

Whatever these types of indexes mean (and 'sponsored by Siemens'?!? Hummmm)

Or have all the Greenpeace founders now turned into corporate hippies?

There was a great piece a while back about Harper and his ecology / green policies (or lack thereof). Pretty scary. Will try to find it again and share.

ExKiwilass

I think it depends where you are.

We don't own a tumble dryer and we only got a car a year ago (have lived here 10 years). It's quite possible in parts of Vancouver to live without one, plenty of eco products here, some cheap some not...we have a clothesline...i take transit...have belonged to car co-op...community gardens in the neighbourhood...my city has a really good compost/recycling programme in place..we're down to one very small bag of garbage every two weeks.

But, from what I understand Vancouver is a bit of an anomaly (sp?) There's more of that culture on Vancouver Island/Gulf Islands too.

Former Lancastrian

You bring out some interesting points. Yes from the piss taking side of things we know that BC has the largest per capita hippies, granola crunchers and birkenstock wearing people who care about these things whereas other parts of Canada dont so yes BC is different.
Most major urban areas have some but not all of the things you mention.

dbd33

If so, that's a marginal improvement, very good!

ExKiwilass

I think we dump ours in the badlands near the fraser valley. Some area no one lives.

el_richo

Vancouver and surrounds are a weird one with a huge range of environmentalist levels.

I'd say you're a definite minoriy here unfortunately.

The amount of people commuting a good distance to have a larger house, sitting in congested traffic (many with large engines), drinking takeout coffee or bottled water/juices, owning as large a TV as possible, eating fast food, etc, is astonishing. I don't imagine the design of the strip malls are most environmentally friendly either.

That's just some of the hypocrisy i see around here.

snowcandy

I have not seen one single washing line in Airdrie, though I did once spot a clothes horse bearing undies on someone's deck (probably a Brit)

I hate using the damn tumble dryer for everything...it's expensive and damaging to fabrics. I have a clothes horse in the basement for putting bits on that can't be tumbled.

Supermarkets, with the exception of Superstore, hand out plastic bags willy nilly- Walmart is the worst culprit, they sometimes give you separate bags for just a couple of items???

We used to recycle everything in Warwickshire, having 3 different kerbside bins. You have to pay here to get a kerbside pick up so we just drive it down when we go to the bottle bank. Old clothes, toys etc go into a box to go to the thrift store.

We have our annual City wide Garage Sale in Airdrie next month so am hoping to be able to get rid of a ton of stuff, mostly toys and kids' clothing no longer needed there.

Consignment shopping seems to be gaining in popularity here. However the ones I have visited are more like the less well organized UK Charity shops and have that nasty whiff about them

Piff Poff

We have a blue bin for recycling paper, plastics, glass etc. In the non snow months there is yard waste pick ups too. I have seen washing lines but no one uses them, I am not sure what the bylaw on that is. Solar panels and windmills are available, I've seen them and will investigate them further in the next year or so. We tend to hoard rather than recycle, something that annoys the hell out of me and we will be doing tons of recycling in the next month or so We recycle cans and stuff for the deposit or donate them to the Air Cadets.

Our lifestyle regarding rubbish will change dramatically in the near future, we will not have curbside garbage pick up, we will have to take stuff to the dump instead, we will want to reduce the rubbish no doubt and will find ways to be recycling better, I imagine I will have quite a good compost heap eventually. I will also have a washing line that I should be able to use for oh about 15 weeks of the year

Atlantic Xpat

Be Canadian and embrace the rural lifestyle: Get a burn barrel in the backyard.

iaink

I think the problem here is that "eco friendly" seems to be misinterpreted as doing your bit to recycle and use phosphate free detergents etc, and the whole issue that none of that much matters unless CO2 emmission are addresses quickly and comprehensively seems to have pretty much fallen by the wayside, or more likely has been thrown under the bus by those with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.

ExKiwilass

Like I said, it depends where you are.

I work for a fairly big company and 80% of us (according to company stats) bike or take transit to work. it also has a strong recycling/carbon reduction programme. And no, it's not a crunchy granola company either...more like the opposite, haha

On the other hand, the OH's industry is hopeless.

iaink

I watched that "pioneer quest" show on TV with interest. They were line drying clothes that literally froze stiff as a board.

Piff Poff

We stayed at a B&B near the Alberta/Montana border a while ago and the owner says he dries his clothes/sheets outside year round, he hangs the sheets for a day, brings them in to defrost and then hangs them a second and third day. I think for successful year round line drying and not having musty clothes/linen you need a decent inside warm area - airing cupboard. My current laundry room doesn't hold enough warmth, I'll have to see how my new one will fair, it's much much smaller so it might work out OK.